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YONKERS, N.Y. – A Yonkers deli manager accused of sending sexually-explicit emails and instant messages to someone he believed was a 15-year-old has been convicted by a jury, the Westchester District Attorney's office said.

Hossam Elfeke, 32, of the Bronx, faces a maximum sentence of four years in state prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced March 5.

Officials say a criminal investigator with the district attorney's office posed as a 15-year-old girl while monitoring Craigslist. Elfeke, who works at a Yonkers grocery store, began sending sexually-explicit messages to the “girl” and arranged a meeting in late November, where he was arrested.

Elfeke was convicted of first-degree attempted disseminating indecent material to minors, a felony.

“Every time a predator goes online or into a chat room, he should wonder if the child victim that he is trying to lure into an illegal sexual encounter is really a member of law enforcement,” District Attorney Janet DiFiore said in a statement. “In having members of law enforcement patrolling cyberspace, as in this case, they can intercede and trap a pedophile before their criminal behavior escalates into a physical sexual assault of a real child.”